House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Norm Dicks (D-WA) and Representative Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA) offered this amendment to H.R. 2584, the FY12 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill, to strike a rider in the underlying bill prohibiting the Fish and Wildlife Service from spending any money to list new plants and animals under the Endangered Species Act, designate critical habitat, or upgrade species from threatened to endangered. This Extinction Rider—a direct assault on the Endangered Species Act, which has prevented the extinction of listed species such as the American alligator and the grizzly bear—would boost the risk of extinction for hundreds of imperiled plants and animals, and it would immediately block life-saving protections for more than 260 “candidate species” that are currently awaiting listing decisions, such as the wolverine, Rio Grande cutthroat trout, and Pacific walrus. On July 27, the House adopted the Dicks-Fitzpatrick amendment by a vote of 224-202 (House roll call vote 652). YES IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE.